MSNBC and FiveThirtyEight react to the second Republican debate

"I'm just not feeling that last one this cycle, so I might skip it." That's what I wrote twice about Wednesday night's Republican debate. I changed my mind yesterday, so I'm covering it for the last post of September*. I begin with MSNBC's Political analysts say GOP debate was ‘an absolute crap show,’ with ‘no joy’ and ‘negative populism’.

In the second GOP primary debate, Republican Presidential hopefuls fought for second place behind frontrunner former President Donald Trump, who stole the show even though he did not attend. Andrea Mitchell is joined by John Kasich, Robert Gibbs and Michael Steele to discuss main takeaways from the debate. “Last night was an absolute crap show. It was nonsense. There was nothing redeeming about it,” Steele says. “There just seemed to be no joy last night,” Kasich adds. “What Donald Trump has brought on the Republican Party is this negative populism.”

Note that Steele and Kasich, whose disparaging remarks MSNBC quoted in the video description, are Republicans. They are neither liberals nor Democrats throwing rotten tomatoes at the candidates on the debate stage or their party.

Speaking of throwing rotten tomatoes at people on the debate stage, my reaction to Nikki Haley telling Vivek Ramaswamy "Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber from what you say" was "Hey, that's my line!" It's what I think every time I hear Jim "Coach Gym" Jordan; he makes me feel stupider just listening to him. I'm not sure I'd say the same thing about Ramaswamy, but he does annoy me.

Haley's barb became a topic of discussion in It's Now Or Never For The GOP Candidates | FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast.

The crew reacts to the second Republican presidential primary debate in this late night podcast.

Galen Druke, Geoffrey Skelly, and Leah Askarinam, who I don't recall seeing before, all thought this was a spontaneous outburst of aggravation, not a prepared line. I think it turned out to be the line of the night. They also seemed to agree that the former guy won while not debating, while Skelly thought Ron DeSantis remained in the lead among those on stage. Galen thought Haley had a good night. The poll FiveThirtyEight took says both did well. The share of respondents saying they'd would consider voting for DeSantis went up slightly and kept him in second behind TFG. The number of participants responding that they would consider voting for Haley went up even more, keeping her solidly in third. Meanwhile, Ramaswamy remained in fourth, but he lost support after the debate. Looks like Haley's punch landed.

I'm continuing with FiveThirtyEight for the final video of the month, Voters React To The 2nd GOP Debate | FiveThirtyEight.

Galen Druke explored what voters think about Republican presidential candidates after the second GOP debate in Simi Valley, California.

The voters liked Haley, but when push comes to shove, they'll vote for Trump. Sigh.

That's it for September's blogging. Stay tuned for a celebration of Wester as the first post of October.

*What I'm not feeling is making graphics for the candidates' VoteView and On The Issues ideological scores, finding a drinking game, and selecting drinks for the candidates. I'm sure I'll get around to the first by the next debate. I already have an idea for the first post in that series, graphics for DeSantis and Mike Pence from Voteview; I already have one for Pence and promised to make one for DeSantis, so it's half-written.